Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1887-02-04
Crops, Products and People OF
st8t ~ NIIssia st 57 2S5. til {. p.

81 The crops and products of Russia
are principally cereals, flax, cat lie.
sheep and wool. Tt is quite evident
the farmers know how to cultivate the
soil, for occasionally are to be seen
evidences of such knowledge. Gener-
ally, however, the cultivation is very
bad. One horse or one OK does all the
farm work. In no single instance
have seen two horses or two oxen
attached to pillow, drag or farm
wagon. The blowing is artistic but
shallow-not more than four or five
inches deep. Fertilizers are but sell
dom used. The land is exhausted, but
the crops are better than l should
think possible under the circum-
stances. In very many localities one
can see where young forests of five,
twenty and fifty years growth have
been planted over old burrows, which
will by and by produce a crop Of tim
Der and then revitalizethe soil. Imet
a well-informed landed proprietor
speaking my own language, whose es-
tates are about one thousand miles
east of St. Petersburg. This gentle
man informed me that Eastern Russia
is the richest part of the kindom. The
River Volga is nevigable from its mouth
to the Caspian Sea for two thousand
miles, or within a few hours ofMoscow
and St. Petersburg. On that river are
six hundred steamboats,; more, l
think, than are to be found
on the Mississippi, Ohio and the
Missouri rivers. On the broad allu~
vial lands OF the Volga and other riv-
ers, the soil is deep and inexhaustioie.
There" said my informant, eve use
the American planter, reaper, and.
steam threshing machine.,.' | saw
none of these labor saving implements
in Russia. Not one. l did see some
OF them in Sweden, and some again in
Poland. The Russian plow is small,
with g. straight beam and a straight
inclined upright piece ,ntersected with
peg for handle. tits drawn by one
horse or an ox,or a COW, land of course
can only turn a narrow, light furrow.
The harrows are small, and generally
made with wooden teeth. The wagons
are proportionately small and
clumsy, and sometimes without IRON
tires. Domestic animals seem to be
we'll cared for, the log stables for cat
tie being larger than the houses for
men.
Almost the entire farming popula-
ton of Russia live in houses made of
small logs and with straw thatched
roots. Generally the logs are sawed
square on three sides, the back being
peeled from the fourth, or outer side.
They are we'll mitered at the ends and
snugly fitted together. These houses
are quite comfortable in appearance
and impervious to cold. The entire
cost OF the material required for
a sample house cannot, think, be more
than 500. Yet is these huts reside
over 100000 OF Russian people.
At first one would say the outlook is
discouraging, the hope of the inmates
small. And so they are. But reflect
for q moment and observe how pos
sibilities may change results. At St.
Petersburg may be seen a little log
hut exactly similar to those have
described, in which lived Peter the
Great, the founder of Russia's present
civilization. The residence of William
Henry Harrison at North Bend, Ind,
when he was elected President of the
United States, was no better than
those. General Jackson, Henry Clay,
Webster, Lincoln and Garfield we're
born in similar humble abodes. And
Russia has this day many unknown
jewellers in log cabins, who, when des-
potism gives place to merit, will step
to the front and conduct the affairs Of
that nation as similar men have con-
Quoted the affairs of the Western re-
public,